Michigan
Michigan sweeps Notre Dame hockey; road playoff series next for Irish
Notre Dame’s recent lucky charm of success playing at Michigan’s Yost Ice Arena ran out Saturday night.
Marshall Warren, a graduate-transfer defenseman from Boston College, beat Notre Dame goaltender Ryan Bischel with a slapshot while skating across the deep slot with 2:57 remaining in regulation to give the No. 16 Wolverines a 2-1 victory and two-game sweep of their Big Ten series Saturday night.
Prior to the series, coach Jeff Jackson’s Fighting Irish (15-17-2 overall, 9-13-2 Big Ten) were 8-1-1 in their last 10 games at Yost dating back to the 2018-19 season. But the sweep (Michigan won Friday 4-0) allowed coach Brandon Naurato’s Wolverines (17-12-3 overall, 10-10-2 Big Ten) to move past the Irish into solo fourth place with a 34-31 edge in points with two games in hand.
The home sweep of the Irish was the first by the Wolverines since the 1996-97 season when alumnus Gordon “Red” Berenson, whose signature is on the Yost ice surface, was the head coach during a 33-year tenure.
Friday night: No. 16 Michigan puts serious dent in Irish home-ice playoff hopes with 4-0 victory
The Wolverines now set their sights on finishing ahead of third-place Minnesota, which has 37 points, when the two teams meet next weekend in Minneapolis. If Michigan does finish third, Notre Dame will play at Minnesota March 8-10. If the Gophers prevail, however, it’s back to Yost for the Irish.
Saturday night, Michigan’s Jake Barczewski, who had 22 saves in the Friday victory, and Bischel stood their ground in a matchup of graduate goaltenders. Both finished with 28 saves for the game, with Bischel stopping 14 of the 15 shots launched in the final period by Michigan, which started the final period with a 13-0 shot advantage.
Indeed, Tyler Carpenter’s slapshot which Barczewski, a grad transfer from Canisius, stopped at 13:58 of the third period was Notre Dame’s first shot on goal in 15½ minutes going back into the second period. The Irish finished with 10 shots in the final period, all of them in the final 6:02.
Notre Dame’s only goal of the game was scored at 3:05 of the first period on the power play when freshman center Danny Nelson beat Barczewski from the left faceoff dot after being set up by Cole Knuble and Ryan Siedem. It came with Michigan skating short a man after receiving an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty at 1:34 when Irish defenseman Jack Boltman, checked into the Wolverine bench, was restrained from getting back into the action.
Nelson later was assisted off the ice at 8:32 of the third period after colliding with Michigan’s Mark Estapa, who later received an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for sending ice shavings up into Bischel at 11:12 after the Irish goalie made a save just before the media timeout. There was no word to the extent of Nelson’s injury.
Notre Dame goaltender Bischel named Big Ten First Star of Week
Like the Irish in the third period, Michigan started slowly on their Senior Night, not getting off its first shot at Bischel until Rutger McGroarty’s effort was turned aside at 8:56 of the first period. Twenty seconds later, it appeared the Wolverines had tied it at 1-1 on a goal by defenseman Seamus Casey. But Jackson challenged the possession, believing Michigan had entered the Irish zone offsides, and a review showed that T.J. Hughes of Michigan indeed had, wiping out the goal.
But Michigan’s tenacity continued, and speedy Gavin Brindley tied the game with his 20th goal of the season, beating Bischel high over his gloved (left) hand at 10:40. Warren and Ethan Edwards received assists.
The Irish later killed off a tripping penalty to Grand Silianoff, and the teams would skate four aside for two minutes beginning at 15:06 with no further scoring.
Late in the period, McGroarty hit Carter Slaggert from behind at the Irish bench, and after a review, the Michigan player went off for boarding at 18:35. Barczewski made four saves until the period ended, allowing the Irish to outshoot the Wolverines 8-7 in the period. Notre Dame’s defense, meanwhile, blocked 11 other Michigan shots from getting to Bischel.
Barczewski had the first four saves of the second period and finished with 11 as neither team scored in the middle session. Bischel turned away eight shots in the period and again got help from his teammates, who had another 11 blocked shots on his way to 27 for the night.
MICHIGAN 2, NOTRE DAME 1
At Red Berenson Rink in Yost Ice Arena, Ann Arbor, Mich.
Notre Dame | 1 | 0 | 0—1
Michigan | 1 | 0 | 1—2
First Period—Scoring: 1. Notre Dame, Danny Nelson 9 (Cole Knuble, Ryan Siedem) PP 3:05; 2. Michigan, Gavin Brindley 20 (Marshall Warren, Ethan Edwards) EV 10:40. Penalties: Notre Dame 2-4, Michigan 3-6.
Second Period—Scoring: None. Penalties: Notre Dame 0-0 (2-4), Michigan 0-0 (3-6).
Third Period—Scoring: 3. Michigan, Marshall Warren 2 (Gavin Brindley, Rutger McGroarty) EV 17:03. Penalties: Notre Dame 2-4 (4-8), Michigan 2-4 (5-10).
Shots on goal: Notre Dame 29 (8-11-10), Michigan 30 (7-8-15). Goalie saves: Notre Dame, Ryan Bischel 28 (6-8-14); Michigan, Jake Barczewski 28 (7-11-10).
Power-play opportunities: Notre Dame 1 of 3, Michigan 0 of 2. Faceoffs won: Notre Dame 34 (13-13-8), Michigan 22 (7-8-7). Blocked shots: Notre Dame 27 (11-11-5), Michigan 18 (5-7-6).
Referees: Barry Pochmara and Tony Czech. Linesmen: Pat Richardson and Samuel Shikowsky. A: 5,800 (5,800).
Big Ten standings: 1. Michigan State 15-5-2, 49 points (21-8-3 overall); 2. Wisconsin 15-6-1, 47 points (24-8-2 overall); 3. Minnesota 12-6-4, 37 points (19-8-5 overall); 4. Michigan 10-10-2, 34 points (17-12-3 overall); 5. Notre Dame 9-13-2, 31 points (15-17-2 overall); 6. Penn State 5-14-3, 21 points (13-16-3 overall); 7. Ohio State 4-16-2, 15 points (12-16-4 overall).
Saturday’s games: Michigan 2, Notre Dame 1; Michigan State 5, Ohio State 2; Wisconsin 3, Penn State 2 (OT).
Friday’s results: Michigan 4, Notre Dame 0; Ohio State 6, Michigan State 2; Wisconsin 6, Penn State 0.
March 1-2 series: Michigan at Minnesota; Penn State at Ohio State; Michigan State at Wisconsin; Notre Dame-idle.
Lansing — Jocelyn Benson, the front runner for the Democratic Party’s nomination for governor, said she believes her work in eight years as secretary of state will help convince voters to promote her this fall.
On Sunday, during a convention in Detroit, Democrats will pick a new secretary of state nominee. And on Thursday, Benson’s campaign for governor submitted about 30,000 petition signatures to get her name on the Aug. 4 primary ballot.
Amid those key moments in the 2026 election cycle, Benson, a former law school dean, sat down Thursday afternoon for an interview with The Detroit News about her time as secretary of state.
“I think that’s what people are looking for: A government that saves them time, saves them money and makes their life easier,” Benson contended. “I’ve done that as secretary of state, and I’ll do that as governor.”
The following interview was edited for length and clarity.
Question: You just dropped off your signatures this weekend. The Democrats are going to be gathering to nominate a new person for secretary of state. I was just looking over your campaign promises from 2017, do you feel like you hit them?
Benson: I had two goals when I came into office: wait times down and voter turnout up. And we did both, and I’m really proud of that.
When I started, we did a strategic planning session every January, and during our first strategic planning session in 2019, we filled the whiteboard on every wall in the office. And in our most recent one, the final one, we had just sort of one, just one little to-do list item left, which was really gratifying. Because we have not just increased turnout, but we’ve transformed our elections, eliminated gerrymandering, implemented the state’s first-ever citizens redistricting commission, which was no easy task, and then also implemented a number of new election procedures and options, educated voters about them and took Michigan’s elections from being ranked 31st in the country to No. 2.
We also did that while reducing those wait times (in Secretary of State offices), transforming our customer service experience. … Wait times are consistently 20 minutes or less, which was my No. 1 campaign goal.
Q: What were some of the strategies you used to get the wait times down for people?
A: No. 1, we listened to our employees, and No. 2, we collected data about what wasn’t working. You can’t fix what you can’t measure. And No. 3, we actually went around the country and looked at what states that actually had low wait times were doing. There weren’t many, but there were a few. Indiana and Illinois, had some interesting things that they did, and we took best practices that were working in other states and replicated them here.
But that first piece was key, listening to our employees. Early on in the process, we brought everyone in, all the branch office directors. I was expecting a daylong retreat where we would be discussing ideas, and I sat down with the director of branch office services. He had a whole PowerPoint presentation that went through everything we needed to do, from filling 900 vacant positions that were just vacant and not filled, to creating internally this opportunity for people to schedule the visit ahead of time.
We didn’t pay someone else to build that. That was built by our employees.
Q: When you ran in 2018, one of the big things you were talking about was election security. Do you feel like you’ve achieved that: improving election security? And what do you think about more people probably having faith in the results of elections then than they do now?
A: I am really proud of the fact that in this era of misinformation, we were able to protect our elections and ensure they remained secure.
While withstanding this unprecedented scrutiny and an unprecedented level of frivolous lawsuits, sham legislative hearings and falsehoods spread about our elections in the eye of the storm, we not only met the moment, but we built a better election system through it. That’s evidenced by the fact that we now have choices on how to vote in our state, we’ve modernized how you can register to vote and have increased the registration numbers we have.
Q: If one of these current candidates for secretary of state came to you and said, “I believe that the election is secure and everything is fine, but obviously there’s a lot of voters who don’t. How do we improve that?” What would you say to them?
A: Transparency is our friend.
Q: Just continue to open the process up as much as possible?
A: Well, the facts are on our side. The process is secure. So one of the most important things we need to do first is just continue to give people the tools that they need to get their questions answered and work with folks across the aisle, like we worked with Sen. Ed McBroom in 2021 to invite them into the process as well as answer questions that they have, while also, of course, maintaining any necessary confidence or security about the information that we’re providing.
But the through line is just transparency.
Q: What do you say to some of your opponents who will say, “Yeah, you decreased wait times. But what about the campaign finance website?” It’s not functioning, as they would hope it would.
A: Well, it’s certainly better than what we’ve had in the past. I think it’s important to remember that when I first ran for office, one of the things I heard most on the trail was actually, when are you going to get rid of MERTS (the former campaign finance disclosure system)?
Q: But that’s from people who are on the back end of it?
A: Right. Yeah. So I didn’t want to leave office without taking on that behemoth, knowing that it wasn’t going to be a smooth process, but it’s a necessary one if we were actually going to have a more transparent system, which I would argue also is something that the next secretary of state really needs to lean into more: getting money out of politics. I’ll be an ally for that as governor.
But when it comes to MITN and that process, one, what it really underscores is that I’m not afraid to take on big behemoths that others, frankly, past secretaries of state, refused to do, because it was too hard. And it does invite criticism. Whenever you try to transform a massive system that’s broken, yes, there are going to be hiccups along the way.
Q: Do you think voters are interested in that message: “I’ve improved these systems. I’m in government. I’ve succeeded in government. I can make it work.” Or are they looking for someone to just change everything?
A: People see a broken system that needs fixing, and they know I have transformed and fixed a system that every single one of our residents has interacted with. The other day, I was picking up food for my son and husband, and walking out with bags of food, and this gentleman in a pickup truck pulled up next to me in the parking lot and said, “Excuse me, are you the secretary of state?”
I was like, “I am.” And he said, “You know, I’m not political or anything. But I just was driving down this road the other day and realized when I passed the secretary of state’s office that it’s been years since I’ve had to go in there. Thank you for everything you’ve done to make that possible for me.” And I said, “Yeah, now imagine if all of government worked that well.”
Q: Do you think all three of the Democratic candidates running for secretary of state would be a good secretary of state? I know you’re not endorsing.
A: I’m committed to working with whoever comes through the convention and making sure they’re prepared to build on what we’ve done and achieve even more success.
cmauger@detroitnews.com
Before-and-after images of homes on Black Lake near Onaway provide perspectives on how the community was affected by April flooding.
Snowmelt and rain have stressed dams and caused lakes to flood in northern Michigan.
The Cheboygan County Sheriff’s Office shared on social media photos and videos that the agency captured of Cheboygan County floods on Friday, April 17 from both the ground and air.
Deputies “observed a level of destruction that simply cannot be understood from ground level,” the sheriff’s office said in the post.
Google Maps images taken from two locations on Black Lake in 2024, compared with the Friday images, show how the floodwater has changed the landscape.
On North Black River Road and Taylor Road, the water has overflowed to North Black River Road.
In the 400 block of South Black River Road, water has also flooded homes and lakeside property.
“Black Lake, Black River, Cheboygan River, Burt Lake, Mullet Lake, the Sturgeon River − and nearly every waterway in the county have overflowed beyond their banks, swallowing docks, roads, yards, and in far too many cases, homes,” the sheriff’s office post said. “What should be familiar shorelines are now unrecognizable expanses of water.”
“Our hearts are with every family affected by this flooding,” Cheboygan County Sheriff Todd Ross said in the post. “We know many of you are facing significant damage to your homes and property, and the emotional toll that comes with it. Please know you are not alone. We are working around the clock with our partners to ensure safety, provide support, and begin the process of recovery. Stay strong, stay connected, and don’t hesitate to reach out for help, we will get through this together.”
Nearby, the UAW Black Lake Conference Center shared images on social media of floodwater threatening its Old Lodge.
The conference center is located at 2000 Maxon Road in Waverly Township.
The Cheboygan County Road Commission and the Cheboygan County Office of Emergency Management closed the bridge at Five Mile Point Road on Saturday, April 18 due to significant road washout in the area of South Black River Road and Red Bridge Road.
The sheriff’s office had encouraged residents in parts of the area to evacuate earlier in the week and said Saturday it had completed evacuation efforts on the west side of the lake.
TEXAS TOWNSHIP, Mich. — A 20-year-old Kalamazoo man is dead after crashing his vehicle into a tree Friday evening in Texas Township, according to Michigan State Police (MSP).
It happened on South 3rd Street and West PQ Avenue around 6:50 p.m., troopers said.
While he was driving in a no-passing zone, the Kalamazoo man swerved off the road to avoid an oncoming vehicle and subsequently crashed into the tree, according to MSP.
The 20-year-old died at the scene. A passenger was hurt, but police said their injuries were non-life threatening.
Troopers do not believe alcohol or drugs were a factor, and the two were reportedly wearing seatbelts.
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This incident remains under investigation by MSP.
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